You step onto the wet sand as a wave reaches up and laps at
your toes. The cool ocean water is a delightful reprieve from the suns
gloriously scorching rays. You take another step in and the next wave wraps
around your ankles. As it pulls back, your feet sink down a little as the sand
is rolled around, at the mercy of this giant water. You can’t help but continue
further, and the deliciously cool (not cold) water creeps up past your knees.
The next wave is larger and catches you by surprise, splashing as high as your
chin. You’re committed now, and your radar is tuned in to the next one rolling
in. You dive directly into the middle of the wave and glide to the other side;
the sun kissing your cheeks as you emerge utterly refreshed. Alive.
As each wave approaches, you anticipate your moment when you
jump because the water that was waist high is now over your head. If your
timing is right, your face clears the top, but more often than not, the water
plays with you, splashing your face, maybe aiding to clean out your nasal passages...
In between each wave in this majestically endless
procession, there is a pull, a very real force that draws you out further into
the depths. You have to work to resist the power of the undertow, but it is
part of the game. When you move towards shore, the water pulls at your legs
beckoning you to stay and play; reminding you that you want to return.
I love the ocean.
And the beach.
And the heat.
I have loved Mexico for a long time. Much like the pull of the ocean tide, Mexico beckons me back again and again in a way I cannot resist.
My love affair with Mexico began in the year 2000 (first year out of high school) when I spent January-June just outside of Mexico City. I went with a missions program called TREK and had spent a few months studying Spanish (in Guatemala) before arriving. I became quite fluent in Spanish during that time as I lived and volunteered with a local church and in a junior high there. I was able to see a few other places in Mexico during that time; like the pyramids of Teotihuacan, the city of Puebla, and we (my group and I) took a bus trip to Acapulco (on the Pacific coast) for a week of rest during our months there.
That initial experience in Mexico has shaped my life in several ways. I love the Spanish language and have maintained a level of fluency all these years although I'm terribly out of practice. Mexico is where my love of teaching was born and it led me to pursue getting my CERTESL (to teach English as a second language) and later, my Bachelor of Education.
I jumped at the chance to return to Mexico with a group from the bible college I attended. (North American Baptist College has since shutdown) I went to Aguascalientes which is found in the very center of Mexico, for the month of May, 2002. During that month, we visited several surrounding villages and performed skits and ran children's programming that laid out the gospel message. We also visited the beautiful Guadalajara for a day. (My baby brother later spent a year in Guadalajara, but I never made it there to visit him!-- A travesty.)
In 2005, Mitch and I were married and we honeymooned in Cancun. We instantly became enamoured with the white sand beaches and crystal blue water. We loved it there. It rained the day we went home and I can remember our taxi driver saying, "Cancun is crying because you're leaving." So was I. ;)
In 2009, my parents used their RCI time share points to take our whole family (this is the pre-kids era) to Acapulco for a week. We had a great vacation staying in some beautiful condos but spending the majority of our time on the beach. :) I find the ocean waves to be a little more rough along the Pacific coast and the sand, while still beautiful, can't compare with the beaches I've been on in Cancun.
In 2013, we booked a winter get-away with my sister and family and some good friends of ours. We booked a condo on top of a resort along the Cancun strip and it was the perfect arrangement for our young families. Jett was nearly 3, Kalena nearly 1, and they quickly loved the Cancun beaches as much as Mitch and I. This trip actually made it into my blogging years, so I have a POST of this trip. The kids were so little and cute!
Mexico (especially Cancun) seems to have a strong irresistible pull on me (and Mitch) because when we started tossing around the idea of taking a kid-free holiday in lieu of our 10th wedding anniversary, (actual anniversary is April 24th) we only looked at resorts in Cancun. I don't even think we considered anywhere else. We love the Cancun strip (a long narrow island full of resorts that face the ocean and back a lagoon). We are comfortable getting around and have had nothing but positive experiences.
My love affair with Mexico began in the year 2000 (first year out of high school) when I spent January-June just outside of Mexico City. I went with a missions program called TREK and had spent a few months studying Spanish (in Guatemala) before arriving. I became quite fluent in Spanish during that time as I lived and volunteered with a local church and in a junior high there. I was able to see a few other places in Mexico during that time; like the pyramids of Teotihuacan, the city of Puebla, and we (my group and I) took a bus trip to Acapulco (on the Pacific coast) for a week of rest during our months there.
That initial experience in Mexico has shaped my life in several ways. I love the Spanish language and have maintained a level of fluency all these years although I'm terribly out of practice. Mexico is where my love of teaching was born and it led me to pursue getting my CERTESL (to teach English as a second language) and later, my Bachelor of Education.
I jumped at the chance to return to Mexico with a group from the bible college I attended. (North American Baptist College has since shutdown) I went to Aguascalientes which is found in the very center of Mexico, for the month of May, 2002. During that month, we visited several surrounding villages and performed skits and ran children's programming that laid out the gospel message. We also visited the beautiful Guadalajara for a day. (My baby brother later spent a year in Guadalajara, but I never made it there to visit him!-- A travesty.)
In 2005, Mitch and I were married and we honeymooned in Cancun. We instantly became enamoured with the white sand beaches and crystal blue water. We loved it there. It rained the day we went home and I can remember our taxi driver saying, "Cancun is crying because you're leaving." So was I. ;)
In 2009, my parents used their RCI time share points to take our whole family (this is the pre-kids era) to Acapulco for a week. We had a great vacation staying in some beautiful condos but spending the majority of our time on the beach. :) I find the ocean waves to be a little more rough along the Pacific coast and the sand, while still beautiful, can't compare with the beaches I've been on in Cancun.
In 2013, we booked a winter get-away with my sister and family and some good friends of ours. We booked a condo on top of a resort along the Cancun strip and it was the perfect arrangement for our young families. Jett was nearly 3, Kalena nearly 1, and they quickly loved the Cancun beaches as much as Mitch and I. This trip actually made it into my blogging years, so I have a POST of this trip. The kids were so little and cute!
Mexico (especially Cancun) seems to have a strong irresistible pull on me (and Mitch) because when we started tossing around the idea of taking a kid-free holiday in lieu of our 10th wedding anniversary, (actual anniversary is April 24th) we only looked at resorts in Cancun. I don't even think we considered anywhere else. We love the Cancun strip (a long narrow island full of resorts that face the ocean and back a lagoon). We are comfortable getting around and have had nothing but positive experiences.
We looked for a reasonable deal at a resort along the strip and we ended up booking through redtag.ca at a resort that had really great reviews. GR Solaris Cancun & Spa is a great resort that we would recommend to anyone. It's not as big as some and it's not brand new, but it's very clean, the food is excellent and the staff provide the best service we've experienced to date. I took the following pics at very quiet times during the day, so they are deceiving. It may look like we had the place to ourselves, but in actuality, the resort was completely full. It provided us with much entertainment as Mitch and I both enjoy "people watching" (aka we're snoopy). We learned after the first day that if you didn't wake up with the sun and get a towel on a beach chair, you didn't stand a chance at getting a lounge chair near a pool.
Here we are dressed up for dinner at the a la carte restaurant, Marco Polo at our resort.
The food was spectacular.
The food was spectacular.
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| One of the locals :) |
I convinced my dear hubby to sit through a time share presentation so that we could get free passes for a great excursion. He lovingly obliged me, so I willingly assumed the roll of bad cop; being the one to repeatedly turn down their increasingly great offers. The experience wasn't that bad (in MY opinion). We received a tour of all three resorts within the Solaris family in Cancun and were fed a great breakfast. Our guide was a really nice Mexican man who also had a young family. It was his boss and boss's boss who applied most of the pressure. They really make you feel like you're making a big mistake turning down their incredible offers, but I felt a sense of pride as we walked away (2 1/2 hours later) with NO time share package.
We booked our Samba tour for Saturday and enjoyed the ride to Playa Tortuga (Turtle Beach) where they are based out of. Below is a pic of the pier they operate off of. We arrived there early, but learned that all sailing tours had been cancelled for the day due to high winds and rough water. We had the option of taking the ferry over to Isla Mujeres for the day, but we opted to reschedule our tour (we really wanted to sail & snorkel) and try again Sunday. It was the right choice :)
With our tour cancelled, we decided to take a long walk. We chose a path that was sheltered with beautiful greenery and exotic flowers (I neglected to take a pic) and we found that we walked into the neighbourhood of the resort where we honeymooned 10 years ago. We have very fond memories of that resort. We had hoped to walk around Dreams Cancun and reminisce, but when we got there, we found it all torn apart and under construction. (see pic below) We talked to a nearby guard who told us that it had been sold. Apparently, it was bought out by Hyatt and it's undergoing major changes. Dreams moved to a new location and is now called Dreams Sands, but we have no sentimental attachment to it!!
On Sunday, we repeated our journey to Playa Tortuga and we were excited that the tour was ON! We enjoyed watching the catamarans come in to dock and prepare.
There were three of their catamarans going out that day (approx. 100 guests) and Samba 1 was our ride. We sat on the roof, which gave us excellent views and kept us dry while we sailed. :)
We sailed for nearly an hour across an expanse of ocean to get to a reef near Isla Mujeres where we snorkelled. It was a lot of fun, but went by quickly. The water was moving steady, which made the experience different than the relaxing snorkelling Mitch did last year in Hawaii. I had bought a waterproof case for my iPhone to take pics under water. I was a little nervous as I jumped off the back of the boat, but it worked like a charm! It was a solid investment seeing as our tour photographer charged $15 USD per picture!!! Here's a few pics I came away with.
After snorkelling, we were taken to a restaurant for lunch where they were caring for a shark that had been injured. I can't remember what type of shark this is, (maybe a Nurse Shark?) but we were offered the opportunity to hold it in the water and get a picture. I politely declined ;)
We sailed into "Pier 7" at Isla Mujeres and were given some time to shop/explore. It is a beautiful island with cobblestone streets and charm oozing out of the old buildings. The main form of transportation is golfcarts. This pic below has a statue of a Barracuda. I had Mitch take this pic because I saw a real live barracuda while snorkelling!!! It wasn't as big as the statue, though... It was maybe 3 feet long, but still had the sharp teeth! :)
We spent much of our time at the beachfront of our own resort. There is something about the breeze off of the ocean that revitalizes the soul.
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| Just two resorts over from us was this remnant of what I'm sure used to be a grand get-away. |
Our resort provided free kayaking/paddle boating, which was a lot of fun. We paddled down stream and snooped into some familiar places we went to two years ago.
This was the condo we stayed at two years ago with the kids. We went with friends and my sister and her family. Does this bring back memories, Carrie & Carmen? So fun. ;) I tried to find our condo on vrbo and I think this is it?? They renovated a little bit! Bellevue Beach Paradise Condo
Do you remember this restaurant, Carrie & Carmen?
And now, we're home.
Back on Canadian soil in our farm house with our precious three kiddos. The pull of Mexico and the beaches on me is incredibly strong, but let me tell you, it's not even close the the pull of my three children on my heart. The flight home felt LONG. But the dozens of hugs I received Thursday morning were oh so sweet. They had a fantastically fun time with both sets of their grandparents and were well cared for in our absence. I am so thankful to be raising our children near much of our extended family. It makes these types of get-aways possible.
This view takes my breath away ;)
